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New from PNAS: Hurricanes Pump Heat into the Ocean

In a study in this week’s issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), scientists found that tropical cyclones can have a long-term effect of pumping heat into the ocean. The finding is based on an analysis of satellite-based data from hurricanes in the Northern Hemisphere from 1993-2009.

Given predictions that tropical cyclones may increase in intensity as the climate warms, the finding could point to a positive feedback loop in which storms increasingly warm the ocean, leading to even higher-intensity storms, said study author Wei Mei of the University of California, San Diego.